I am not a registered anything so I probably won't be voting in the primaries. But after watching the Republican debate last night, I have to say that Fred Thompson is the guy.
Here are some excepts from the debate last night
Regarding the Reagan Revolution
This is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party and its future. On the one hand, you have the Reagan revolution. You have the Reagan coalition of limited government and strong national security.
On the other hand, you have the direction that Governor Huckabee would take us in. He would be a Christian leader, but he would also bring about liberal economic policies, liberal foreign policies.
He believes we have an arrogant foreign policy and the tradition of, blame America first.
He believes that Guantanamo should be closed down and those enemy combatants brought here to the United States to find their way into the court system eventually.
He believes in taxpayer-funded programs for illegals, as he did in Arkansas.
He has the endorsement of the National Education Association, and the NEA said it was because of his opposition to vouchers.
He said he would sign a bill that would ban smoking nationwide. So much for federalism. So much for states' rights. So much for individual rights.
That's not the model of the Reagan coalition, that's the model of the Democratic Party.
Regarding the naval incident with Iran
I think I agree with the governor on that. You can't take the judgment like that out of the hands of the officers on the ground there. I think one more step and they would have been introduced to those virgins that they're looking forward to seeing.
Iran was clearly testing us. They took British hostages under similar circumstances and it proceeded obviously much past what happened to us, but they're testing our resolve. They know that they're dealing with a nation that's not going to put up with that sort of thing. But it's some insight as to the way that they're thinking.
I think the Revolutionary Guard now has taken over from the regular military force with regard to those speedboats and so forth, so they're going to get a little more frisky. But they need to understand that if they cross the line, they're going to be destroyed.
Regarding Pakistan's President Musharraf
I had the opportunity, with others, to visit with President Musharraf some few years ago, visit Pakistan and Afghanistan and that region. Democracy of Pakistan is in the long-term security interest of Pakistan and, therefore, it's in our interest.
They were moving in that direction before Prime Minister Bhutto was assassinated. Now they're in the streets. The government is in question. Some of our people, I think, are irresponsibly calling for Musharraf's resignation, cutting off of aid and all those things.
There's one little problem with that -- who you're going to get in return. They're the only Muslim nation in the world that has nuclear weapons and a nuclear capability. Our national security interest and who's hands those nuclear weapons are going to be in is an overriding interest of ours.
We need to make sure that there is stability of that country, to the extent that we can do anything about, and certainly in the short- term, anyway. That involves supporting Musharraf, while we continue to encourage him not only to move toward democracy, put those judges back in place that he fired, those dissidents that are in only for political reasons he needs to release, and he needs to help us more in the western mountains of Afghanistan where the Taliban is still hiding and where Osama Bin Laden probably is.
We need to put the pressure on him, keep the pressure on him, but let's not ever kid ourselves.
Our national security interests require that those nuclear weapons do not fall into the hands of radicals in Pakistan.
...Governor Huckabee, if I understood him correctly, seemed to be concerned that part of the money we're sending to Pakistan goes to their own military. That's the point. We help train their military. Their new top general over there was trained here in the United States for a period of time.
They have lost several people fighting the Taliban. That's who they would fight the Taliban with, is their military. So our cooperation with their military, our supporting their military, is a good thing.
On Taxes
Well, first of all, I know the governor is pointing out that he signed the tax pledge. Earlier this year on Tim Russert's show, on another network, he said it'd be a dangerous thing to make a tax pledge because you couldn't foresee what was going to happen in the future.
Well, what happened in the future was that, later on that year, when the pressure got building, he signed the tax pledge.
No, I don't think so. I like to think of my own record. I pointed out several points of the governor's record, and what he has done, and what he has said.
But we were able to go to Washington in 1995, and we passed five major tax bills; we passed welfare reform; we've passed a balanced budget for four years in a row.
We were able to do some headway, make some good with President Clinton even with regard to sound, conservative judges. And I compiled 100 percent pro-life voting record during that time. And that's why the National Right to Life folks and the South Carolina Right to Life folks have endorsed me in my candidacy here.
So I like to feel like we did do some good. I certainly didn't do it single-handedly.
But, yes, you can be a part of something good in Congress if you work hard and the voters respond to your conservative message. We took a sound, conservative message to the American people at that time, the respect for the rule of law, a market economy, and a nation that doesn't tax and spend you to death, and a nation where a country boy from Tennessee or a country girl from South Carolina can grow up and, if they obey by the rules -- abide by the rules, expect to achieve the American dream.
That's what we presented. They responded to us. And we were able to do some good things then.
As chief executive, as president of this country, we could do a lot more good things. And that's why I'm running for president.
On Immigration
GOLER: Senator Thompson, the governor says the 12 million people would be looked at individually. How would you find them? And could you do it faster than he would, sir?
THOMPSON: You can't look at them individually. We need to be a nation of high fences and wide gates, and we get to decide when to open the gate and when to close it.
(APPLAUSE)
I believe with all my heart that if we enforce the border, if we crack down on employers who knowingly hired illegal immigrants, and required them to use the modern technology that we have now so that they can, in effect, push a button on the front end and find out whether or not someone is legal, and if we put an end to sanctuary cities, where local governments are, in effect, telling their people they can't cooperate with federal authorities with regard to illegal immigrants, and we would do that by telling the sanctuary cities, "If you continue that, we cut off discretionary federal funding to those sanctuary cities," if we did those things, we would have enforcement by attrition.
We would reverse the process that we're going in now. It's not just 12 million people. We have to be concerned about another 12 million people.
I disagree with my friend, John McCain, on the bill that they proposed last year. I disagree with my friend, Governor Huckabee, when he supported in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, when he fought the legislature when they tried to impose verification requirements before a person could vote so you could determine they were an American citizen.
I think that we have got to enforce the border, crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigration, and stop sanctuary cities and policies that encourage people to continue across the border while we claim to be trying to enforce the border.
Senator Thompson has my full support and is about the only candidate who does
